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By RYAN MAVITY
There is a certain class of music I like to call “sleep
music.” In a nutshell, it’s music I can go to
sleep to. It’s not necessarily bad; in fact it, may
be quite good. But if you’re tired, or if it's rainy
outside, which it is as I write this review, it will knock
you out.
Add Liverpool band Anathema’s latest release Hindsight
to that class. Ordinarily a rock/metal band, Anathema
goes (mostly) acoustic on Hindsight. The album features
new songs and reworked versions of older tracks in a mellow
style. Many of these arrangements are atmospheric, with an
emphasis on pretty melodies and acoustic guitars aided by
the cello playing of Dave Wesling of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.
To put a comparison out there, Hindsight has the
feel of Coldplay’s Parachutes album or the
slower parts of Radiohead’s The Bends but with
a lower-pitched singer. The only exception is “A Natural
Disaster,” one of the band’s older songs, which
doubles as the best song on the album thanks to the lead vocals
of Lee Douglas, whose voice has a Christina Scabbia-like tone.
Douglas and singer Vincent Cavanaugh have a nice chemistry
on that song and “Temporary Peace.”
But as many positive things as you can say about the record,
the dreamy soundscapes can also be too much of a good thing.
The album is so moody and atmospheric that you lose yourself
a little too much. There’s an almost hypnotizing effect,
but it’s hypnotizing in the way elevator music or watching
a pocket watch going back and forth is hypnotizing. While
that can be effective, there’s no release to snap you
back out of it. Even when the band rocks out a bit, like on
“Flying,” it keeps with the same hypnotizing rhythm.
Obviously, Anathema is experimenting, and the experiment largely
works. But the album requires the listener to be in a certain
mood. If you are in that mood, it’s very good work.
If you’re feeling a little drowsy, you’re not
going to make it long enough to enjoy it.
®2009 Live-Metal.net
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